The article “Trainers in Wales failing bosses” (TES, FE Focus, October 31) shows how important basic skills such as literacy and numeracy are in the workplace. It is clear that there are no immediate fixes. But the Basic Skills Agency, as part of the Welsh Assembly’s national basic skills strategy, is helping employers across Wales to tackle this issue head on through the employers’ pledge award.
This award encourages employers to commit to improving their employees’ basic skills and, once they have done this, helps them to produce an action plan to take this commitment forward. So far, 53 employers from the public and private sector across Wales have signed up to the award, ranging from a nursing home with just seven employees to the largest local authority in Wales.
It is our view that the employers’ pledge, together with the national basic skills strategy - which aims that no young person should leave education without the basic skills necessary to progress in work and in society - will help to ensure that Wales has one of the most highly skilled workforces there is.
Rhiannedd Pratley
Executive director Wales
The Basic Skills Agency
